Simone Deromedis ends season triumphant and tells all about forbidden contact
Simone Deromedis closes the season by triumphing: in the second challenge of the final stage in Gällivare, Sweden, the Olympic champion sets his seal by centering his third World Cup success of the season, in addition of course to the Olympic victory in Livigno. And in the aftermath of his untimely exit due to contact with Duplessis-Kergomard, on the podium the Trentino rider once again finds Edoardo Zorzi, third despite a fall in the final, for a new double Italian podium, as in the season opener (with Zorzi himself) and as especially in Livigno, when Federico Tomasoni got his hands on the five-circle silver.
A victory, that of Deromedis, which came at the end of a thrilling duel with Canadian Reece Howden, winner of the overall standings, resolved only at the photo finish with the 25-year-old from Trentino able to tick it off by a finger on his right hand. For the Trentino from Taio, his eighth career victory in the circuit thus takes shape, a haul to which he adds the 2023 World Championship title and the Olympic one last month.
A contact with German Himmelsbach in the upper part of the course instead put Zorzi out of the running in the final: third place is nevertheless for the Bergamasque who thus closes on the podium as in the inaugural race of the winter in Val Thorens, when he was second behind Deromedis himself.
The test of Dominik Zuech was also excellent, who put himself on show for all the rounds for the high speed on the Swedish track: the South Tyrolean in the semifinal had to be content with the small final then closed in second place behind Jared Smith to give with the sixth place an even tastier flavor to the excellent Italian day. Never had it happened in the top circuit to find three Italians among the top six. Out in the battery instead Federico Tomasoni.
“It was a great challenge with Reece – was Deromedis’s comment at the end of the race – this time I beat him and I could not finish better this crazy winter. I would also like to say a few words about the incident in race 1: the contact with Youri was not regular, but I want to say that nothing was done with intention, it can happen. Yesterday’s exit gave me an extra charge for today and I proved it on the field. This winter has brought me Olympic gold and three other victories, but in the two previous years I have also put myself on the map, that’s what matters most.”
The World Cup closes with Howden’s (1061) success ahead of Deromedis (750), while in the women’s event there are 1268 points for Näslund, who leaves behind Maier (1053) with Jole Galli fifth with 623 points.
